Monthly Archives: August 2011
Savoring Four Almonds Daily
Indian food is dangerous, at least for me. A firm believer in Atkins and all things low carb, I continue to be apprehensive about what the food in India could do to my size. Why? Because it’s too tasty for my own good! Put some Bengali sweets in front of me and watch me sweat. And it’s simple enough then to talk myself into having just one rasmalai. Western desserts I can ignore with equanimity. Why, oh why, can’t I do that with traditional Indian too-sweet desserts?
And that’s not even considering all the other delicious dishes from various parts of India (see Hyderabadi biryani and other yummy food in the picture here)…
With this fear in mind, I started taking precautionary measures once I moved here. So, it’s yoga on 3 days every week and weight training under the guidance of a personal trainer at the gym on the alternate 3 days. Mentally, all of this is helping greatly. 🙂
My body too is ‘appearing’ to become more flexible and I feel more energetic due to the yoga. Is it my imagination or are my muscles getting visibly toned due to the weight training? I think I just feel all-over good because I’m actually doing something.
My personal trainer is very determined that I meet my goals to lose weight. I don’t particularly care about the weight (muscle weighs more than fat after all), but I sure would like to lose inches off certain strategic parts of my body. 🙂
He explained to me that when it comes to weight/inches loss, 75% is a result of your diet and only 25% to exercise. He also recommended a nutritionist who has worked magic with his clients.
So, of course I went to see her. I asked her why Atkins was not helping me lose inches like it had before, and she advised me that my body had “adjusted” itself to that diet and probably needed to be shaken up. Made sense to me. So, I just began my new diet. It’s both low carb and low fat and involves small meals and snacks every 2-3 hours. Lots of veggies, eggs or fish are allowed, but no chicken yet. Every week she will check me out and start adding other foods based on how much I have lost so far. Can’t wait!
So, that brings me to the almonds. One of my prescribed daily snacks – the 10 am snack to be precise – is 3 to 4 raw almonds. Yes, you saw that correctly! Not 34 almonds or even 23; I would settle happily for a mere 12, but no, it’s 3 to 4 almonds a day. Well, to me that means FOUR, dammit! So, you should see me at 10 am, pitifully counting out my four almonds. Then, I take a few bites of each because I need the rations to last awhile. Finally, I relish each bite like I’m in heaven. Did you hear me say pitiful?
So, there you have it. Now you know why I savor my four precious almonds every day!
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P.S. I still think Atkins (or some other low-carb lifestyle) is the way to go for good health and happiness; will return to it once a few inches disappear…soon, I hope!
P.S. #2 – This post was written in late May but only published a few weeks later. Sad to say, the new diet lasted exactly two weeks with no discernible change, except for hunger and dissatisfaction. 😦 Not surprising! Now, I am happily back on my Atkins for life, where I can enjoy cheese, heavy cream in my cuppa coffee, peanuts and an occasional glass of red wine without breaking any rules. In fact, one positive aspect of this trial was to gain a finer appreciation of all things low carb! Bye-bye silly diet, and bye-bye hunger…
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Biryani Photo By Karan Verma (originally posted to Flickr as Hyderabadi biryani) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Almonds Photo: By Sanjay Acharya (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
Intriguing Insights About and Between U.S, India and China
The Economist uses interactive maps so creatively! Here’s what I would like you to take a peek at. They have compared the states or provinces of U.S., India and China to various countries based on equivalent GDP, population or GDP per person. Can you say wow? Well, you will, once you see these innovative maps!
They reveals some fascinating insights and also work to shatter misconceptions about the economic well-being (or not) of certain regions. I’m really trying hard here – to put this in enough words that intrigue you to click on the links below and experience the interactivity. I hope I succeed! This is so very, very interesting and I would hate for you to miss it. Both the content, as well as the super creative presentation of it.
First, let’s look at the United States. To give you a taste of this, let’s take the largest state with respect to GDP – California. Guess which country of the world its GDP is closest to? I’m going to let you find out which. Now, take one of the laggard states. Let’s see….how about Alabama? Well, its closest country in terms of GDP is Nigeria.
Big Texas is always an intriguing state. Its GDP is equivalent of that of Russia, while it’s population resembles Saudi Arabia’s the closest. Interesting stuff, wouldn’t you say! And that’s just a taste of it.
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Next, let’s take a look at India. It’s largest state (GDP-wise) is the same one where I live, Maharashtra. After all, it does include the financial capital of the country, Mumbai. Guess which country is closest in terms of GDP? I’ll tell you. This state has equivalent population to Mexico but it’s GDP compares more closely with Singapore. But then, when you take it a step further, and look at GDP per person, it compares to….Sri Lanka!
Now, don’t you want to check out the same stats for another of the Indian states?
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And, then there’s China, the Asian Tiger, or is it dragon? Projected to overtake US as the world’s largest economy around 2020, how does it fare in all these dimensions?
The most populous province Guangdong, with almost 100 million people, most closely matches Indonesia’s population. Macau is the richest per capita with a GDP per person that matches, actually exceeds, that of Qatar. Why? Its population is tiny, similar to that of Solomon Islands, while it’s GDP is relatively high, matching that of Panama.
Here’s another interesting one from China – Shanghai (province=city), which is equivalent to Cameroon’s population, Finland’s GDP and Saudi Arabia’s GDP per person. I would say it’s doing relatively rather well.
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All in all, I just wish I had more time to delve into and play with these maps! Some day….
But, let’s draw some quick conclusions from this data. Of these countries, the US leads in every way, and India lags behind all three with China somewhere in the middle. While the potential of both emerging Asian countries is undisputed, there is still such a wide disparity between them (even between China & US) and the super power. Its really hard for me to fully comprehend how or when these gaps will close. As for the gap between China and India, it’s immense!
Regarding India, to quote a friend who commented on this revealing data: This also shows how great our potential is, if we invest in nurturing our human resources. Education, education, education! Now that we have the population that we do have, we should be turning this threat into our greatest opportunity.
Now, if we can continue to dream a bit longer, wouldn’t it be nice to have a reliable government who can make this happen?
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The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 